Recall what China was back then. 80% rural with the PLA growing their own food. You could not bomb China back to the Stone Age when they were already in the Stone Age.
The CCP had already prepared the People's War. Surviving Cities would still be under CCP leadership. Collective Farms have their own militia orgainizations and the militia alone numbered 5 million. Most of the PLA would survive under Divisional leadership. The CCP would remain in charge of the country side. They had thought this through.
The CCP had already prepared the People's War. Surviving Cities would still be under CCP leadership. Collective Farms have their own militia orgainizations and the militia alone numbered 5 million. Most of the PLA would survive under Divisional leadership. The CCP would remain in charge of the country side. They had thought this through.
even holding onto Lop Nor afterwards is optional, because good luck to China restarting a nuclear program anytime soon after the nuclear holocaust.
What did the Soviets actually gain here? A big desert. What might they lose? The Soviet Far East. Just one nuke would wreck 20 miles of the Trans-Siberian railway leaving vulnerable to a 7 million foot army which doesn't drink gasoline as much as the Soviets do.
All of this does not mean the Soviets could not win and win easily but the shift would be from counter-force to counter-population, from de-nuclearizing China to genocide ... and that was not the plan.
All of this does not mean the Soviets could not win and win easily but the shift would be from counter-force to counter-population, from de-nuclearizing China to genocide ... and that was not the plan.
before this gets even more confusing, i wanted to re-vector back to the original discussion. Brezhnev was willing to risk nuclear war with China provided the US was alongside the USSR, or at least neutral. but even the POTENTIAL of getting into some sort of conflict with the US was a deal-breaker for Brezhnev. he knew it was unlikely that the US was going to start WWIII over China, but he couldn't be sure. deterrence, not warfighting! :-)
just like LBJ was always afraid of ground troops invading North Vietnam because he couldn't be sure about the Chinese response...even tho everyone knew that the likelihood was low.
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